9/11 Name Fight Drags On

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Because nothing that concerns ground-zero development is easy, and because nothing about 9/11 commemoration is easy, and because any perception that some victims are being memorialized more than others is taken as a slight by civilian victims’ families, and because any perception that cops and firefighters aren’t being more thoroughly memorialized is take as a slight by their families, well, that’s why 2006 is winding down with people still arguing over a nonexistent memorial. In the latest bit of incremental progress, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation thought up a new arrangement of victims’ names on the memorial. (The original plan was random placement.) Firefighters and cops will now not be ranked but grouped by command, precinct, or company. Civilians workers killed in the attacks will be listed by employer, but the employer will not be named. Spouses and siblings will be put together. The plan also, somehow, accommodates the names of the Pentagon and United 93 victims as well as the six people who died in the 1993 bombing. Firefighters’ reps are okay with the new order, but the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund isn’t. (And that’s before we hear from everyone else.) Mayor Bloomberg, who is clearly beginning to lose patience, responded: “There is no ‘right’ answer. Nevertheless, it is time to move forward.” Youthink?